The Sneaky Magpie

This weekend was great. Having a friend for breakfast on Saturday morning made me clean my house and do grocery shopping early. After my friend was gone about midday I was left with a tidy house, full fridge and a whole weekend to enjoy myself without any chores.

I did a small trip to one of my favorite cooking and baking shops in London – La Cuisiniere.  Unfortunately they didn’t have the things I needed and as I was in the area I popped to the local charity shop instead. I always head for the book section, they sell paperbacks for 50 pence and I usually find some of the classics I am meaning to read. This week I got:

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, a novel I wanted to read for some time as I am a huge Bronte sisters fan

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith which I never heard of before but it looks very interesting and funny

Hotel Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones – I though Fashion Babylon was not that silly after all, the plot is very basic but there is a lot of little insights of how the industry really works, I hope to fish out those bits from this book about hotels, and at 50 pence it can go back to the shop anyway. I thought it was serendipity having just finished her other book.

Even though I haven’t bought any bake ware I did manage to make some tarts. I hate making pastry but I like the idea of pretty tarts. So I decided to face my demon and make some. I figured the only way to learn how to make pastry is to do it frequently. Sweet pastry is way easier to make than savoury one, though.

The treats this week were hazelnut tarts from Skye’s recipe and super rich chocolate tarts from Jamie’s recipe. The hazelnut filling is like hazelnut frangipane, delicious with a hint of lemon rind. I added one whisked egg white unlike Skye, I can never stick to a recipe!

I also learned that I should trim the pastry before baking for a neat look, doing so after it’s baked ended up in a disaster, the pastry just chipped and large chunks fell off.

I popped to the Battersea car boot sale and got some granny cups, love them!

Watched Milk at last and thought it was fantastic.

Also watched Everyone says I love you and thought it was not that fantastic, I haven’t been lucky with Woody Allen lately.

I also guest blogged about my olfactory adventures on Signature Scent which was fun.

I must say it felt a little bit like spring on Saturday but I don’t want to get too excited as it’s not even the middle of February.  Felt tempted to buy some daffodils but restrained myself and settled for small pink carnations, I should enjoy spring when it comes!

The weather was glorious on Saturday, the sun was shining, the ground was covered with a film of snow and it felt chilly. A perfect day for a stroll down a market.

A friend  of mine and I decided on one of the less busy places, Broadway Market in Hackney.  This market is the perfect combination of food, fashion, antiques and books. You can flick through old copies of photography books while sampling wonderful infused olive oils and various cakes.

The street is full of cute little cafes, quirky shops and proper old fashioned English institutions like this jellied eel place:

And it was as busy as when it opened…

Fantastic vintage liquor cabinet.

I wouldn’t mind a picnic set for summer outings.

And some retro shot glasses (I am hunting for the perfect set).

Plenty of good quality fruit and veg. It’s a shame I live so far otherwise I would do my weekly shopping there.

Old fashioned candy – I don’t actually like them but the jars look so pretty.

We decided to stop for lunch in one of the cafes, it was called L’eau a la Bouche, we ordered hot chocolate to warm up and curried parsnip soup with pesto for my friend…

And ploughman’s for me. It was delicious.

Afterward we decided to stroll down to Old Street. There are some amazing buidlings along the way. They have so much character.

We headed to Leonard Street and had tea at The Book Club.

It serves as a cafe and you can play ping pong there, it also has got all kind of events like DJ nights, reading, fashion, discussion groups. A fun place and so laid back!

Then it was time to go home, I was exhausted as the previous night was spent at friend’s house for dinner which finished rather late. Btw did you see the amazingly bright Moon?? As explained by hubby it was the night when the Sun reflected off Mars and projected onto the Moon resulting in Moon shining like a mega light bulb.

Due to various events last week (work related) I have been feeling down. I took 3 days off and they turned out to be very unproductive, I can’t concentrate and can’t get excited about anything. Even seeing those bunnies didn’t make me smile.

Yesterday I went to Spitalfields Market as it was the vintage day but failed to get inspired and left empty handed. Then I saw Orla Kiely sample sale at Truman Brewery so I decided to check it out. The queue was long, I waited for 1 hour feeling like I shouldn’t be there surrounded by Orla clad women often accompanied by children, I was definitely not in the gang. As I moved up in the queue and started to see the items on sale I realised why I am not an Orla fun. It’s all very nice and good quality but it’s not me. I wouldn’t mind her interior design stuff which is to die for but her clothing is not my cup of tea. So being about 5 ladies away from the door I walked away.

Today I woke up in a slightly better mood. I have cleaned my whole house which was very therapeutic, went through my wardrobe and photographed a bunch of ebay stuff – I was very ruthless with my clothes so now there is a bit more room. I am only wondering if it’s worth selling stuff before Christmas? The post office queue will be horrific and surely people don’t have the time to bid in a pre-Christmas rush…

I also came up with a butternut squash pasta bake and here is the recipe:

1 butternut squash diced and de-seeded

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1/2 tsb thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

250g penne

100ml cream

handful of grated parmezan

Heat up the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Place the squash on a baking tray and season with coriander seeds, chili, thyme, salt and paper and sprinkle with olive oil. Roast for 20-30 min until the squash gets soft and slightly caramelised. Take it out and mash it till smooth-ish.

Cook pasta.

Combine cream, parmezan and season well.

Mix the mashed squash with pasta and check the seasoning. Place in an oven dish, cover with cream and cheese and bake for further 15-20 min until bubbly and golden. It’s nice to serve it with rocket salad. The green bits in my dish are spring onions, they don’t work that well but they were on their last legs and I hate food wasting.

Tomorrow I need to finalise the gift list and buy few more cards so I can post everything on Monday and concentrate on a gift for M. We don’t do big gifts for each other (or others), I hate all the money wasting and mindless shopping for items that will end up in a bin. It’s either a thing I am sure the person will love or just few food/beauty bits.

Now I really must come up with something to cheer myself up.